TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Where is privacy? Personal data on spreading spree in Indonesia
Indonesia is the Wild Wild West when it comes to personal privacy and how companies collect data. Data theft and trading is rampant.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Illustration of data protection (Shutterstock.com/Ico Maker)
Ratri, 30, was appalled to receive a bill of Rp 3 million (US$211) from a loan company for purchases she never made.
In an incident in May last year, the company insisted she pay because it had documents containing her personal data that confirmed her loan application for the purchase.
Five other incidents then occurred. The most recent one was someone spreading her e-ID card picture on a Facebook group, saying that she was an online shop fraudster.
The resident of Malang, East Java, became worried and reported to the police. But the case was dropped, as the police said she did not incur losses.
“I don't know what [the perpetrators] will do again with my data. I am scared and embarrassed to death that my e-ID card picture has been spread online,” Ratri told The Jakarta Post recently.
Despite the existence of a number of laws, Indonesia is the Wild Wild West when it comes to personal privacy and how companies collect data. Data theft and trading is so rampant that anyone can easily get text messages, phone calls and e-mails offering loans and other items from unknown individuals or companies.
It is also not uncommon that banks charge customers on their credit cards for purchases they never made. The financial institutions were often as clueless as the purchases were often made online by unknown parties that have retrieved the customers’ credit card information.
